I weirdly liked this book. Even though the main character was a bit much for me and totally self-absorbed at times, I liked it. Probably because the author does a kick-ass job describing DC and the food the main character is making. She also included recipes in the back I want to try sometime soon as well.

"The Girls' Guide to Love and Supper Clubs" has Hannah Sugarman at a cross-roads in her professional/personal life. She works at a think tank she really hates and has a boyfriend she really loves. She really would love to quit her job and just cook full-time, but disappointing her parents (both professors) and her boyfriend is something she's not quite ready to do. When her relationship with her boyfriend crashes and burns, Hannah is forced to move out and needs a way to make some money. When her work friend Rachel suggest that they do an underground supper club, Hannah thinks she may have a way to feed her need to cook and save some money. Things would be great except she's hosting the supper club in her landlord's home without his knowledge. And he's running for a council seat in Dupont Circle with one of his mission's to wipe out the restaurants or other entities running around serving food and liquor without a license.

As I said above, Hannah bugged me. I think the reason why is that I didn't get a sense she was trying hard at all. If she didn't want to work at the think tank then quit. Doing a terrible job wasn't winning me any favors. Same issue with her passive aggressively cooking when she's angry at her boyfriend. Or when she talks crap about her boyfriend's parents while they are eating dinner, or talks crap about a new love's interest's mom's cinnamon buns. So yeah, Hannah talks a lot of crap. I wanted to feel for her, but honestly most of the issues/problems are a result of her doing whatever and actually being shocked when she's called out.

The other characters are sketched out pretty well. You get a sense of Hannah's work nemesis and her boyfriend. I loved Hannah and Rachel together, but found it sad when Hannah called Rachel her only DC friend when Rachel rightfully calls her out for being self absorbed. Hannah's landlord was great and I started to wish for a book told from his POV.

The writing was good I have to say. Dana Bate does a good job of describing the food that Hannah is making, but also why Hannah is making certain things and what her food is trying to evoke with regards to eating/memories. The flow was off a bit though. Things get bogged down around the 80 percent mark (IMHO) and then I found myself skimming just a bit to get to the end.

The setting of D.C. was written very well here. Bate has obviously been to the nation's capitol and doesn't just describe random places and have her character get from to and fro in 10 minutes (not even with the Metro people). She describes Georgetown, the farmer's market (I miss them right now), Dupont Circle, Chinatown (which is the world's saddest Chinatown), the Army Navy Memorial, and a whole host of other places that I have been. I really enjoyed this book so much since there's not a lot about DC I am in love with these days. This book brought it all back though.

The ending was a bit abrupt. I wish that Hannah had more closure (yeah I hate that word) with her boyfriend and that we could have skipped a head a bit. Still I give it four stars for holding my interest and making me laugh out loud several times. ( )

This book was ok. I didn't really like Hannah and I hated what she was doing. I did like the recipes, I even tried the brisket this weekend. It was very easy and quite good. ( )

Hannah Sugarman’s perfect boyfriend just broke up with her, forcing her to move out of their shared apartment. Meanwhile her frustration with her job reaches a fever pitch, leaving her in the doldrums. Her friend suggests they open an underground supper club, a semi-illegal operation in which they can charge strangers for elaborate dinners held in a private home, thus allowing Hannah freedom to experiment with new meals and explore her love of cooking. But Hannah being Hannah means that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Usually I avoid romance books or “chick lit” reads, but I had been reading a lot of heavy stuff (in terms of subject, although also in writing style for some as well), and I wanted something light for a change. This was definitely a light read, but it was much better than I was expecting. It was certainly well-written, with a good grasp of human foibles and a bit of snark on that front. While the overall plot was fairly predictable (too good to be true guy is indeed too good to be true while the kind of socially awkward and not exactly gorgeous but not exactly unattractive either guy turns out to be the keeper), there were plenty of interesting turns along the way and some individual moments of surprise. Because the book dealt with many elements besides just Hannah’s love life (i.e., her relationship with her parents, her friendships, her job, her career aspirations, etc.), there was a lot of material to delve into here.

In a lot of respects, I felt like I could relate to Hannah. Although she’s stated to be 26 at the time of the book’s events, her age at other certain events (i.e., a freshman in college on September 11, 2001) means she is the same exact age as me. Her feelings of being stuck resonated with me, particularly as Hannah contemplated her career options. For much of the book, Hannah is worried about being forced into a certain job track because academia is considered her destiny given her intellectual abilities and her parent’s backgrounds, despite her desire to leave and do something more in line with her passions, even if that’s less financially lucrative or sounds less professional. (At one point, she laments, “There are more metrics to success than the number of degrees after my name.”) In point of fact, however, her path has taken her to work at a policy think tank, quite similar to my own work situation (even if her focus is economics, not education). While the shared specifics may be fewer for other readers, I'm sure I'm not the only one - especially among young professional women - who can say "I've been there" to that feeling of not being sure where or how to proceed next in your life.

And while my “less professional” alternate route is not likely to become the subject of a compelling book, Hannah’s passion for food is definitely interesting to read about as the book progresses. It was another area in which I identified to some degree with Hannah, as I also turn to baking as a way to reduce stress. But Hannah’s skills far exceed the majority of us, as she dreams up interesting themed meals with stylish and delicious-sounding food. All the food references were enjoyable to read about, and the author did a great job of explaining these quite evocatively, giving sensory descriptions. Indeed, readers should be aware that their own dinners may now seem blasé in comparison!

The whole Jacob plotline was mostly a distraction, as you knew it was never going to work and even had an idea of what would go wrong. Still, I guess it was part of trying to throw the reader off course as to the real ending, in addition to giving Hannah the chance to show that she’s matured some. The end, of course, ties everything up all fairy tale-like with a neat bow, but a happy ending is nice sometimes even if it's unbelievable. The audio version had an excellent reader who really brought the story to life. All in all, this was a surprisingly pleasant read that I would recommend to chick lit lovers, fans of Bridget Jones-type heroines, foodies, and anyone looking for a light and fast read that’s uplifting. ( )

While it was fairly predictable where this novel would be going, it was often hysterically funny watching it play out. Some thought provoking scenes about jobs, parents, and who we pick for boyfriends! Great fun on audio. ( )

A very fun read--I'd definitely like to attend one of Hannah's supper clubs! ( )

From Lilac Wolf and Stuff

This book really touched me. It starts out with Hannah kind of having a dream life. She has a boyfriend who is doing well, she has a job that her family approves of. But it's not really perfect. He's kind of an ass and throws her out and she honestly hates her job. She loves to cook, that's where her passion lies.

So when she finds her perfect apartment, her friend starts pressuring her to hold a supper club. It's an illegal and secret dinner. I was hooked. I'd love to do something like that! But with 2 kids and a ratty old trailer, I'll have to live through Hannah for right now.

It's a good sign when you are cringing at all the bad choices a character makes but you still can't put it down. I read this book months ago, the cover caught me. I had some free time and library books but this cover just screamed "read me!" It really was a great chick-lit story. Romantic comedy? Fun, definitely fun! ( )

Sometimes in life you try so very hard to please others, to live the life that they want you to live, to act the way they want you to act, and to be the person they want you to be that you forget that the person you are, before all the outside influence and pressure, is wonderful. And trying to be someone you're not is a fast way to heartache, dissatisfaction, and unhappiness. But it's awfully hard to be true to yourself when the people you are trying to please are your parents or your boyfriend. In Dana Bates' sweet debut novel, The Girls' Guide to Love and Supper Clubs, main character Hannah Sugarman finds out just how hard it is to bend your life to others' expectations when your own happiness lies in a different direction entirely.

Hannah works for a Washington, DC think tank and lives in a spectacular apartment with boyfriend Adam who first fell for her because of her larger than life, forthright, "firecracker" personality. She's happy neither in her job nor in her relationship but she's holding on with both hands anyway. Her professor parents got her the deadly boring job when she seemed undirected after college, completely dismissing her interest in cooking for a living, and Hannah, wanting to please them, went along with them. As for her relationship with Adam, it's definitely on shaky ground but she's so afraid of losing this first enduring partnership that she is willing to try as hard as she can to subvert her natural buoyancy to be the more sedate girlfriend that Adam now seems to want no matter that her initial attraction was the fact that she was the complete opposite of this. But suppressing herself is not Hannah's strong suit and it is inevitable that her relationship with Adam crashes and burns in a humiliatingly public manner. And because Hannah cannot afford their swanky apartment on her own, she has to find a new place to live.


The apartment she finds is a tiny basement apartment underneath cute but nerdy landlord Blake's gorgeous townhouse. Blake, who sometimes talks like a pirate, using nautical terms and fishing similies an awful lot, is the communications director for a Florida politician and so he's often away working in the constituency. In a bid to take Hannah's mind off of the Adam debacle, her best friend Rachel convinces her to try hosting an underground supper club now that she's in her own place and Adam can no longer disapprove. The supper club will be a good toe in the water of professional cooking for Hannah and will put her firmly in a happy place in life. Of course, secret supper clubs are not entirely legal, circumventing the health department and regulations. But any concerns disappear in the face of the excitement of creating a menu, procuring the ingredients and cooking the meal, which is surprisingly and gratifyingly booked out. So when Hannah's apartment floods the morning of the supper club, it's a disaster. Without thinking and knowing that Blake is in Florida, Hannah and Rachel simply move the location upstairs into his phenomenal Dupont Circle townhouse. The night is a fabulous success and the secret, exclusive Dupont Circle Supper Club is born.


Hannah's cooking is sublime and people loved the experience she provided so the internet is abuzz with this new clandestine happening. There's just one problem. She used Blake's house, not hers, and he'd be horrified by that fact, especially since he's running for neighborhood office on a platform that intends to shut things like Hannah's supper club down. But flush with her success and feeling more fulfilled than she has in a long time, Hannah continues to use his house to host these dinners, even as she and Blake develop a friendship. Trying to achieve her dream of cooking professionally in her spare time while still trying to live the majority of her life the way that her academic parents have always dreamed of for her can come to no good. And close call after close call reminds her that she can easily sabotage everything that's good, happy, and fulfilling in her life in the blink of an eye. But maybe getting caught is the only way she will ever be able to come into her own and learn to make the decisions that make her happy instead of trying always to please others.

Hannah is a loveable muddle of a character. She comes across as very young and immature but eager to please. That she maintains a facade of adulthood at all in her dreary job is frankly amazing. She's easy to sympathize with though because she is obviously loving and wants so much to make everyone else happy, even at the cost of her own happiness. She is so torn between what she should do and all the ways in which she worries that she's letting others down that it's hard not to want to take her in hand yourself and direct her down the path she clearly needs to tread. The secondary characters exist only in relation to Hannah and so they are more one dimensional. The constant threat of Hannah's supper club being discovered keeps the narrative tension high and although the eventual love interest is never in doubt, how they finally come together is sweet and well done. This is a delightful tale of gentle love and delicious sounding food. Readers who enjoy lighthearted stories with a main character who definitely grows and matures into a more confident but still natural and appealing person will enjoy this funny and charming read. And for the kitchen inclined, there are several enticing recipes in the back, all from one or another of Hannah's supper clubs. ( )